DAY 4 Rest day in Plitivice

Today we spent the first part of the day hiking around the several lakes of Plitvice National Park, a marvel of nature with countless waterfalls, creeks and lush vegetation. A relaxing short boat ride to start with, the around the upper lakes, another boat ride, coffee&strudel (ok, not as amazing like Austrian strudel, to be fair) and another hour of stunning paths over the water until the big waterfall. and in the afternoon? Let's go for a short ride... well, with road work detour it has been over 200 km... of fun!

DAY 3 Opatija to Plitvice

Ingredients:

one ride on the motorway around Rijeka,

one long bridge to reach Krk,

one ferry to Rab,

a fantastic terrace restaurant with marina view

another ferry to the mainland

a whole afternoon across Croatian mountains and a national forest

a touching coffee stop in Otocac where the signs of the war are still present

Result:

a pretty awesome riding day, from island hopping to mountain crossing... until the plateau of Plitvice lakes and national park, which we are going to visit tomorrow during our rest day!

DAY 2 Rest day in Opatija

Long day yesterday... time to relax a bit today! Plenty of options: sleeping in, a morning dip into the Adriatic sea form the platform just underneath the hotel, a walk along the romantic promenade between the 18th century Villas... or of course a ride around Istria! Quite a few decide to follow the tour guides for some beautiful scenery along the coast and inland across the peninsula, until we reach Vrsar for our lunch stop.

DAY 1 Klagenfurt to Opatija

In the pretty alpine town of Klagenfurt (Austria) a group of motorcyclists from Mexico, United States, Germany, Singapore and Australia (what a mix!) has started the Adriatic Rollercoaster tour: after crossing the border we enter Slovenia, where we visit the karst caves of Postojna and then move over to Croatia. A few shots of the first day...

Kropa, old mining town...

Some villages here have really unpronounceable names

Morning coffee stops.. thank you Mark and Carlos for helping us doing the "sweepers" for today!!

Lunch on a roadside "welcome bikers" terrace...

With the electric train into the caves... Like Disneyland, but this is all real! Bump your head into the rocks if you don't believe!

Finally, Croatian border, and great views from the rooms of the hotel in Opatija, on the Kvarner bay.